CAT Labs, a startup building tools to fight the misuse and abuse of emerging technologies like Crypto and AI, today announced it has raised $5.4 million in an oversubscribed seed round led by M13. Existing pre-seed investors Castle Island Ventures, CMT Digital and Hash3 also doubled down on their initial investments in this round. The funding will support CAT Labs' mission to equip law enforcement, defense, and intelligence agencies with the tools they need to address the growing threats posed by the nefarious use cases of emerging technologies like cryptocurrency, AI, and quantum computing.
MIAMI, Dec. 4, 2024 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- CAT Labs, a startup building tools to fight the misuse and abuse of emerging technologies like Crypto and AI, today announced it has raised $5.4 million in an oversubscribed seed round led by M13. Existing pre-seed investors Castle Island Ventures, CMT Digital and Hash3 also doubled down on their initial investments in this round. The funding will support CAT Labs' mission to equip law enforcement, defense, and intelligence agencies with the tools they need to address the growing threats posed by the nefarious use cases of emerging technologies like cryptocurrency, AI, and quantum computing.
By 2025, global cybercrime is expected to exceed $10 trillion in costs, fueled significantly by criminal networks leveraging cryptocurrency and AI. In 2023, cyberattacks surged, affecting over 343 million victims. The FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) reported a record 880,418 complaints from the American public, with potential losses surpassing $12.5 billion—reflecting a nearly 257% rise in annual losses compared to 2019 before the boom of the cryptocurrency market.
CAT Labs is dedicated to equipping agencies worldwide with tools to identify, seize, and recover illicit assets, empowering investigators to track and dismantle these criminal operations.
Founded by former U.S. Department of Justice DEA Special Agent Lili Infante, CAT Labs is a company of experts who understand how global criminal networks operate and use that knowledge to create the tools needed to dismantle them.
The team is composed of former investigators, analysts, and technologists from agencies like the Department of Justice, Homeland Security, and the Department of Defense. CAT Labs' technical team also boasts advanced degrees and published research in areas such as blockchain analytics, cryptography, and artificial intelligence, further strengthening its position as an industry leader. CAT Labs team members during their careers have collectively contributed to more than 1,000 asset seizures and the dismantling of over 300 decentralized criminal organizations.
"We're taking on the 'Digital Kingpins'—criminals who use cryptocurrency and AI to scale their illicit activities to unprecedented levels," said Lili Infante, CEO and Founder of CAT Labs. "Traditional methods of deterrence are outdated, and we aim to bridge the gap by providing the technology and education needed to fight these threats head-on."
"CAT Labs stands out by assembling a team of experts with extensive experience in cryptocurrency-enabled crimes," said M13 partner Karl Alomar. "With criminals, drug cartels, terrorists and even hostile nation-states increasingly using cryptocurrency and AI to scale their illicit operations and exponentially increase their global reach, CAT Labs provides crucial tools to combat these evolving threats."
CAT Labs' flagship product, Recovery CAT, currently supports multiple federal and state/local government agencies and helps investigators automate and scale investigations involving cryptocurrency, making it easier to find, identify and seize illicit assets. Asset recovery and seizure is a key tool in depriving criminals of their ill-gotten gains and returning stolen funds to victims, and CAT Labs' technology scales this process to meet the growing threat landscape. In furtherance of this effort, CAT Labs also developed a 3-day Digital Asset Seizure Certification Course for law enforcement to teach crime fighters how to triage their cases for seizable crypto assets and illicit finance leads.
"If left unchecked, the rise of cryptocurrency-enabled crime will only intensify and cybercriminals will increasingly use AI to automate attacks, create synthetic identities, and evade law enforcement on a massive scale," said Infante. "With this funding, we're not just building a company—we're building a future where our public servants can keep pace with our enemies who don't play by the rules and are often first adopters of emerging technologies which they use to wreak havoc on our society."
The company is also developing quantum-resistant technology for cryptographic key backup and recovery with support from the U.S. National Science Foundation, helping to address future global threats posed by quantum computing.
For more information, please visit https://www.catlabs.io/.
About CAT Labs: CAT Labs develops tools to help government agencies and private industry fight the misuse and abuse of emerging technologies, with a focus on countering the nefarious use cases of cryptocurrency, AI, and quantum computing. Visit catlabs.io for more information.
Media Contact
Acey Allen, CAT Labs, 1 305-209-4620, [email protected], www.catlabs.io
SOURCE CAT Labs
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